Press loader



March 15, 1932.

W. H. MASON PRESS LOADER Filed NOV. 13, 1930 2 Sheets-Sheet INVENTOR M///4/77/$'/ M150 BY v ATTORNEY-S March 15, 1932.

W. H. MASO N PRESS LOADER Filed Nov. 13, 1930 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 TOR A7 INVE M/AM A? Patented Mar. 15, 1932 UNITED ,STATES PATENT OFFICE WILLIAM H. MASON, 0F LAUREL, MISSISSIPPI, ASSIGNOR T0 MASONITE CORPORATION, OF LAUREL, MISSISSIPPI, A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE PRESS LOADER Application filed November 13, 1930. Serial No. 495,382.

My invention-relates to press loading, and is applicable more particularly to the loading and/or unloading of presses equipped with platen screens interposed between the platen and the articles to be pressed, and

serving both to convey such articles into the press and to permit the free escape of moisture during pressing and drying; such press being preferably of the superposed multiple platen type. The invention further relates to the combination with such press, of racks for supplying thereto the articles or sheets to be pressed and /or for receiving and ofi'bearing the completed sheets or products.

The embodiment of the invention herein illustrated is particularly applicable for use with a press for making vegetable fiber boards, such as shown in my Patent No. 1,767,539 granted June 24, 1930. In such patent, the platen screens are wound up on rollers. In certain other presses of similar type,'the platen screens have been carried around rollers. It is an object of the invention to maintain the press platen screens always in substantially fiat state, thereby avoiding repeated bending of the screen such as is incident to carrying it around rollers, or winding it upon rollers, prolonging the useful life of the platen screen fabric, and simplifying the operation of the apparatus.

lVith the apparatus of my said patent, the racks had to be changed between the operations of discharge and reloading, both of which were performed while the press was open, the completed sheets being received and borne off by one rack, and such rack replaced by a second rack used for the bringing up of the wet lap sheets for reloading the press. It is an object of the present invention to eliminate the slowing up of production resulting from changing racks while the press is open by providing a combination of press and rack whereby the pressed boards are unloaded into compartments between the superposed wet lap sheets upon a rack already containing the wet lap sheets for press loading, which wet lap sheets are then run into the press direct from the same rack.

It is also an object of the present invention .to make provision whereby the same agencies which discharge the completed boards upon outward movement from between press platens serve during retractile movement to carry in the wet lap sheets for reloading. I

A further object of the invention consists in making provision for efficient commercial manufacture of pressed boards having a corrugated surface. Making such boards between corrugated platens on platen screens that are passed around rollers or wound on screens would involve destructive bending and stretching of the platen screen fabric upon closing of the press,but by maintaining the platen screen fabric in substantially flat state with only sufiicient corrugation to fit fairly close to the corrugated platens, I am enabled to handle wet laps into the press having corrugated platens and the corrugated pressed boards out of the press in a practicaland efficient manner and without sacrifice of the useful life of the platen screen fabric and with minimum press time loss for platen screen repair and replacement.

Further ob 'ects of the invention will a)- pear in connection with the following escription of the apparatus selected for the purpose of illustration.

In the accompanying drawings:

Figure 1 is a diagrammatic horizontal sectional View of a press and rack showing a press platen with a platen screen thereon, and a pressed board 011 said screen, the rack containing wet laps and being in position in front of the press to receive the pressed boards and discharge its load of wet boards;

Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic side elevation of apress and rack;

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic side elevation of two press platens and two rack compartments in the relation of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged side elevation of the adj oining ends of a press platen and one rack compartment, the parts being in the same relative positions as in Figs. .1 and 3, with the platen screens and pressed boards about to be withdrawn from the press;

Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. 4 with the parts in a position after discharge of the pressed board and during the early parts of the retraction of the platen screen and delivery of the wet board therewith into the press;

Fig. 6 is a diagrammatic plan view of a platen having a corrugated surface, a corrugated screen on said platen, and a pressed corrugated board on said screen;

Fig. 7 is an enlar ed end view of a portion of two platens having corrugated surfaces with a corrugated screen on the lower platen and awet board on said screen ready to be pressed; and I a Fig. 8 is a perspective detail of a portion of the pressed corrugated board.

The preferably movable racks 10 from which the Wet lap sheets are delivered to the press are provided with means such as horizontal sets of rollers 12 for forming shelves or compartments for supporting and conveying wet lap sheets W to the press to be received upon'the corresponding press platens.

.When rack 10 is brought to its position in front of the press, the top roller surface formed by rollers 12 is somewhat above the topsurface of the corresponding ress platen 13, thereby facilitating trans er of the heavy, fragile, wet lap WV to the press platen. I also. provide the racks 10 withsets of rollers 14, so located beneath rollers 12 as to receive the stiff, self supporting pressed board B discharged from the press, and with guides 15 toexte-nd across the rack structure and guide the pressed board on to rollers 14. The rollers are rotatably supported on pintles 16 journalled in the frame 17 of rack 10.

I provide means on the rack for drawing out the press platen screens 19 and therewith the pressed boards B and delivering the latter upon rollers 14. Same may comprise a pair of hooks 20 pivotally borne by sprocket chains 22 running around sprockets 24, located at the oppositeends of rack 10, and under idlers 26, whereby the upper reaches of the chains 22 are deflected downwardly to carry the platen screens 19 engaged by hooks 20 downwardly beneath rollers 14 and upon and along suitable supporting guide plates or aprons 28, and the pressed board B is defleet-ed by guides 15 and delivered onto rollers 14. In this way, the carriers and the pressed boards are separated at substantially the point of entrance thereof into the rack.

Press 8 comprises a plurality of platens 13 guided in a frame 30 and lifted from the customary positioning stops by hydraulically operated rams Each platen 13 has a platen screen 19 over the surface thereof, which screens are adapted to be withdrawn from the press into the rack 10 by means of hook members 20 engaging lugs 36 on cross bars 38 secured to the leading end of the screens 19, and applying power to drive the sprocket chains 22, as by means of a master sprocket chain 39 engaging sprockets 24 on the same shafts with sprockets 24. On the opposite end of each screen 19 is secured a second cross-bar 40 to'which the ends of two cables 42-42 are fastened, said cables being wound in spiral grooves in elongated substantially cylindrical pulleys 46 which are mounted to turn in brackets 48 extending outwardly from the rear corners 50 of each platen 28. All of the pulleys 46 are driven slmultaneously at equal uniform speeds and provision is made for driving rollers 12 to simultaneously drive the wet lap W at the same speed, as illustrated diagrammatically in Figs. 1 and 3 wherein the drive is through a shaft 52 having a sprocket 53 by which it is driven through a chain 54 from the drive source such as a motor or the like, adapted to be thrown intoclutch when desired. The shaft 52 is mounted in suitable bearings 58 and also has mounted thereon two additional sprockets 60 and 62. A chain 64 driven by sprocket 60 is adapted to engage and drive sprockets 65 on each of the pulleys 46, while a sprocket chain 66 connects the sprocket 62 with a similar s rocket 68 mounted on a shaft 70 in bearings 2 located at the rack end of the press.

.The wet lap supporting rollers 12 on the rack 10 have sprockets 74 securedthereto which are adapted; to be driven by sprocket chains 76 through sprocket 78 on a shaft 80. A vertically disposed sprocket chain 82 in engagement with sprocket 78 engages and drives sprockets 84 on the ends of one shaft of each of the first vertical rows of rollers 12.

Since the rack 10 is removed after each ress loading a readil 'disengageable drivmg means is provide to connect the press pulley drive with the rack roller drive and same comprises an arm 86 pivotally mounted on the shaft 70 and carrying a sprocket 88 on its free outer end which sprocket 88 is driven from a sprocket 90 on shaft 70 by a sprocket chain 92. By lowering or raising arm 86 sprocket chain 92 may be engaged or disengaged with sprocket 94 mounted on the shaft 80 for driving the wet lap rollers 12. It is not necessary to drive rollers 14 as they simply receive the strong pressed boards B which are self-supporting, but rollers 14 may be driven if desired.

When a pressing has been completed,.the press platens 18 are automatically separated by the lowering of the rams, leaving each platen supported upon its stops, and the pressed boards are ready to be withdrawn, and the wet laps are on the rack, which has been moved in front of the press, and are ready to be loaded into the press immediately thereafter. Now hooks 20 on each of the chains 22,v are manually or otherwise brought into engagement with lugs on platen screen cross-bars 38, and power applied to drive all of the rack sprockets 24, chains 22, and hooks 20 so that the platen screens 19 and pressed boards B are all simultaneously withdrawn'from the press into the rack. The

then lowered to engage chain 92 with.

sprocket 94 and power is applied to drive t e chain 54 and shaft 52,-which drive is transmitted through the aforementioned gears and sprockets to the press pulley sprockets and rack roller sprockets 84 to drive same simultaneously in the same direction and the same speed, causing the platen screens 19 to be drawn back into the press and to carry with them the soft fragile Wet laps W which are delivered into the press upon moving screen 19 off of rollers 12 as indicated in Fig. 5, wet lap W' and screen 19 moving at the same speed, whereby injury to the fragile wet lap during transfer is prevented. When the platen screens 19 have been returned to the press with the wet laps \V thereon, the press is closed and the rack containing the previously pressed boards is removed. To permit removal of the rack, arm 86 is raised to disenga e the sprocket chain 92 from the gear 94. l eplacement ofracks 10 is accomplished while the boards are in the closed press, thereby speeding up production by reducing the time interval during which the press stands open. The function of withdrawing means including sprocket chain hooks 20, may, if desired, be limited to withdrawing platen screens only, as for example, this will'be the case if for any reason boards B have been manually unloaded.

rugated platens by being held at their ends between corrugated straps or bars forming cross-bars 38, 40'. Otherwise the operation of the device in making corrugated boards screen, means for moving said screen with articles to be pressed thereon into the press and means for-moving said screen out of the press after the pressing is completed while maintaining the screen in substantially flat formation.

3. The combination'with a multiple platen press of a rack provided with means for supplying articles to bepressed and with take off means for pressed articles whereby the pressed products can be unloaded into the rack and the articles to be pressed delivered to the press from one and the same rack without inter.- mediate rack replacement.

4. Press for making corrugated pressed boards of vegetable fiber comprising corrugated platens and generally flat but somewhat corrugated platen screens movable bodily in substantially flat. state into the ress with the articles to be pressed thereon an movable out, in like state, of the )ress when opened. a

5. The combination with a press of a platen screen therefor movable in and out and maintained substantially flat while out, and means for supplying a body to be pressed so that it is conveyed into the press upon the screen I durin inward movement of the screen.

6. he combination with a press of a platen bined feeding and product receiving means comprising a support for a pressed fiber product and a support for same unpressed, whereby when the press is open the pressed product can be discharged to such means and the unpressed one supplied directly therefrom, to

the press. a

8. The combination with a press having a press platen screen movable inand out and maintained substantially flat when out, of a combined press feeding and product receiving means having a support for a pressed fiber product and a support for same unpressed, the screen serving on outward movement to deliver the pressed product to such first named support and serving upon inward movement to transfer unpressed material from its conveyor support into the press.

9. The combination with a press having a platenscreen and means for retracting same, of rack meanshaving supports for pressed fiber products and for same unpressed, and provided with means for withdrawing such screen and maintaining same substantially flat when out, said screen serving on outward movement to discharge pressed products upon their rack supports, and serving on inward.

movement to convey unpressed products from their rack conveyor supports into the press.

10. The combination with a multiple coinpartment press, of a rack having twice as many compartments, and devices for first dis charging pressed bodies from the press into one-half of-the rack compartments and for thereupon delivering unpressed bodies from the remaining rack compartments to the press compartments, where-by the time the press needs to be open for unloading and loading is reduced to substantially the minimum.

11. Process of press loading and unloading comprising conveying wet laps up to a press, opening the press, discharging pressed boards from the press into the conveyance, delivering the Wet laps from the conveyance to the press, closing the press and conveying away the pressed boards.

12. In the process of making'pressed fiber bodies, the steps comprising supporting a plurality of relatively wet fragile bodies of vegetable fiber separately at successive elevations, transferring the bodies so supported to a multiple platen press, delivering a similar pluralit of pressed and dried vegetable fiber bodies rom the press, and supporting them between the wet ones, delivering the wet bodies into the press without change of supporting devices, and transporting away the finished bodies so supported.

13. A multiple platen press having wire mesh carriers over the platen faces, means in the press for drawing the carriers inwardly, a double multiple compartment rack having means to draw the wire carriers outwardly while directing the wire carriers away from and a pressed board from the press into a re ceiving compartment for the latter, said rack also having means for supplying unpressed boards to the carrier to be conveyed into the press upon retractile movement of the carrier.

14. A multiple platen press having'wire mesh carrier's over the platens, means on the press for drawing the wire carriers inwardly, a double multiple compartment rack, means on said rack adapted to be engaged with said carriers and serving to move same outwardly into the rack with pressed boards thereon, a guide for guiding the pressed boards oil the carriers and into compartments for receiving same, and means operable upon retractile movement of the carriers to deliver wet unpressed boards upon the carriers whereby they are conveyed into the press.

15. A wire mesh press platen screen comprising asheet of wire mesh fabric substantially flat from end to end with substantially rigid cross-bars at each end of the sheet and means for bodily moving said screen by pulling on the respective cross-bars.

16. A screenas in claim 15 in which the cross-bars are corrugated and the fabric is similarly corrugated,

17. In apparatus of the class described, a multiple platen press having wire mesh carriers over the platens, means in the press for drawing the carriers inwardly, a rack associated with the press and having two sets of roller floored compartmentsone set for unpressed and one set for pressed vegetable fiber products', means on said rack engageable with said carriers for simultaneously withdrawing said carriers from the press into the rack while maintaining said carriers substantially fiat, means for separating the pressed boards from the carriers substantially at the point of entrance into the rack and for guiding the boards to the compartments for receiving same, and means for delivering the fragile impressed boards from the remaining compartments of the rack over the ends of the pressed boards on to the carriers during the retractile movement of the latter into the press and at the same speed therewith.

18. In combination, a press comprising a multiplicity of platens having screens which cover one surface of each platen, a rack having a multiplicity of compartments and provided with means for Withdrawing the platen screens from the press into said compartments and means attached to the press adapted to return the screens from the rack to the press.

19. A multiple platen press having wire carriers over the platens, means in the press to draw the carriers inwardly, a rack for supplying fiber sheets to be pressed and means on the rack for moving the carriers outwardly to position for receiving the unpressed sheets.

20. In combination, a press comprising a multiplicity of platens and screens which cover one surface of each platen, a rack hav ing a multiplicity of storage compartments alternately adapted for receiving pressed and impressed articles, means for withdrawing the platen screens from the press into the rack to transfer pressed articles contained thereon to compartments located between the compartments for impressed articles, means on the press for returning said screens to the press, and means in the rack for transferring said unfinished articles on to the surfaces of the returning screens.

21. In combination, a press comprising a multiplicity of platens and screens which cover one surface of each platen, a rack having a multiplicity of storage compartments comprising roller platforms adapted to support pressed and impressed articles respectively, sprocket gear and chain transfer mechanism on the rack between pairs of roller platforms for pressed and unpressed articles, hooked members on said chains adapted to engage lugs on one end of the platen screens to withdraw said screens with pressed articles thereon from the press into the rack, guides in the path of the oncoming pressed articles to guide same to their respective roller platforms, pulley and cable pulling means on said press to return the platen screens to the press, and driven means on the rack for causing the unfinished boards to be conveyed by their respective roller platforms onto the inwardly moving screen at a speed the same as the screen speed.

22. The combination With a press and press name hereto.

WILLIAM H. MASON. 

